Square is rallying after obtaining a bitcoin license in New York
- Square has received an official New York State "bitlicense" to facilitate buying and selling of the cryptocurrency.
- Shares of the payments company rose about 1.3% following the announcement.
- The move is a "win-win" for Square, one analyst told Business Insider.
- Watch Square trade in real-time here.
Shares of Square spiked about 1.3% Monday morning after the company said it had obtained a New York State license to let customers buy and sell bitcoin through its Cash app.
The payments company, founded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in 2009, has supported bitcoin since January, when it first launched support for the cryptocurrency in certain states. Square is the ninth firm to receive a "bitlicense" from New York's department of financial services, Reuters reported.
So far, Square's venture into crypto seems to be working out. In its most recent earnings report in May, the company said it made a $200,000 profit from bitcoin in the first quarter thanks to price fluctuations from the volatile cryptocurrency.
Today's announcement is just another step forward in Square's fight against Venmo to be the go-to payments app, one Wall Street analyst told Business Insider.
"Something like this could accelerate the pace of downloads and let the Cash app be more entrenched," Dan Dolev, an analyst at Nomura Instinet, said in a phone interview. "It's a win-win and another positive step forward for Square."
Shares of Square are up 80.5% this year. The price of bitcoin, on the other hand, has fallen 52%.
